The Multicenter Atorvastatin Plaque Stabilization (MAPS) Study

The impact on cardiovascular events achieved by statin therapy seems to be mostly attributable to the cholesterol-lowering effect with a highly debated contribution of the lipid-independent pleiotropic effects. However, a short-term benefit has been documented for patients treated with statins in acute coronary syndromes and other clinical settings. These observations strengthened the hypothesis of additional, so-called pleiotropic actions of statins. The investigators therefore sought to investigate how different lipid-lowering strategies (non-statin therapy, low-dose statin and high-dose statin) affects cellular composition of carotid plaque over a short-term period of three months. Specifically the investigators tried and dissect the LDL-C lowering impact on plaque cellular composition as compared to the lipid-independent contribution on plaque macrophage and smooth muscle cells.

Patients (with Total Cholesterol (TC) ranging between 5.83-7.64 mmol/l), never treated with lipid lowering drugs, with symptomatic carotid stenosis \>70% (NASCET criteria), and therefore eligible for carotid endarterectomy, were recruited. All patients were enrolled within 30 days from the clinical event, and randomized to one of three treatment groups. Each group, composed of 20 patients, received atorvastatin 10 mg/day (AT-10 group), or atorvastatin 80 mg/day (AT-80 group), or cholestyramine (Questran, Bristol Myer Squibb) 8 g/day plus sitosterol (Unilever) 2.5 g/day (C-S group) for three months prior to the vascular procedure. A placebo group was not included for ethical reasons due to the high cardiovascular risk profile in this population.